Chapter 2: Getaway Driver

Flash was doing what he was best at; he was running. Between them, he and Shayera had tracked their target down. Of course, it hadn't really been that hard to do so. The villains had left enough of a trail of chaos behind them that Stevie Wonder could have followed it with both arms tied behind his back and a gag in his mouth.

Flash had encountered these guys once before. Well, one of them anyway. The one who had done all the escaping, not the ones who'd done all the assisting. In fact, he had been one of those who had put that one guy in prison in the first place.

The Death Row Gang had been new to the scene eight months ago. There had been six of them at first, each with a different kind of enhanced power. They hadn't been the smartest bunch, nor had they been impeccably organised. That had meant that they were easy to be manipulated, easy for a proper villain to bend them to their will and own diabolical scheming. The bunch had merely been used to get the attention of the Justice League and subsequently set the heroes on the path of the then true villain's plan. The gang had done that job, but they had also been apprehended in the process, all winding up in jail. Well, all except the one who had been shot dead by the assassin Deadshot.

And now another had been killed too, only this time by one of his own friends. This one really was callous. He had murdered one of his own allies to escape from jail, even if he had surely known that the Justice League would immediately be hot on his tail.

This ones name, or at least the one he called himself by since the Death Row Gang's inception, was Guiteau, although Flash simply knew him as "Stretchy Guy", or "Armstrong" after the toy. He was certainly the most brash of his old team, the cockiest one who probably thought of himself as not only team leader but the fiercest weapon too. Heck, he probably also thought that he was more than a match for the strongest of the Justice League on his day. He also, then, must be delusional. The League had beat him before and they'd beat him again. He was relatively nothing, a mere sideshow, a distraction.

But he was right now's distraction.

The "why" was yet to be discovered. It also didn't really matter, especially to Flash. They had figured out the "how" though. The death of his friend had been callous and deliberate. Guiteau had slaughtered his friend, using his shape changing ability to help him create a shank out of his own fingers. It was a shank that he had used to kill his friend, a guy known as Herrold, whose body he somehow dumped out in the out . The first the guards had known of it was when they found Herrold's corpse. The prison had gone on high alert the moment the body was found, but the initial confusion and chaos surrounding finding a dead body had given Guiteau his window of opportunity.

Folks' best guess was that Guiteau had deliberately killed his friend to create that chaos. That much was pretty obvious as soon as the walls of the jail where blown apart the opposite side of the complex to where Herrold was found. Before the guards could race across the place in sufficient numbers to stop him, Guiteau was gone, leaving a trail of rubble in his wake. Ferried away by a heavy truck with plenty of armed goons aboard, he had sped off into the night. Worse, he and his allies had somehow managed to temporarily lose all law enforcers who had given chase long enough to get good distance between him and them. No one yet knew who his helpers were, but once again it didn't matter yet. What they were up to and why they went through so much risk to break Guiteau out would be most easily discovered by catching the buggers. That would also surely stop the guys if they did have any evil plans up their sleeves.

Luckily then, they had not managed to lose the Justice League. Word wasn't slow to reach the Watchtower but it had been slow enough. By the time J'onn had them dispatched and they arrived on the case, the police were actually back on Guiteau's trail. However, they were also happy to hand this one over to two such renowned heroes. Now Flash and Shayera were hunters pursuing their prey, ready for the take down.

The truck was in Flash's sights. He could catch it easily if it wasn't for all this damn traffic. With so many people about on the roads, there was no way Flash could run full speed to get himself up there in the blink of an eye. The chances of getting tagged by one of the many cars on the road were far too high if he did, and at those speeds the chances of injury being very serious were also way too high. He would just have to make do going a bit slower, especially with the truck swerving all over the place to make the cars also swerve to avoid them. Clearly that was a tactic to keep Flash behind them. It was also a tactic that was working.

Shayera wasn't having quite the same problems that he was, but she wasn't really in a position to take out the truck either. She had recently been grounded for a long time following a nasty injury to one of her wings, but thanks to the magic of the docs on the Watchtower she had fully recovered. Now she was fully airborne again, meaning that it was easy for her to just fly straight over the top of all those screaming cars. The problem for Shayera was that the people on that truck were taking steps to keep her at bay too. They may essentially be throwing cars in Flash's way, but they were throwing bullets in hers. Those goons who had broke Guiteau out of prison were leant out of the truck, spraying machine-gunfire up into the skies. Shayera was having to essentially stay as far back and virtually as low down as Flash was to avoid it all. Guiteau and his goons weren't getting away from them, but they weren't getting closer to him either.

Yet.

They were determined to get these guys. Flash was a runner, but he didn't run away. That went for Shayera too, a battler good and true. In fact, Flash could hear her growling away, anger building at being forced to hide away like this. Her mace was firmly in her hand, fingers gripping it so tightly they were turning white.

And it was that glance that gave Flash his plan.

"Shayera, toss me your pointy stick! I got an idea!" he hollered over the wailing horns of desperately evasive cars, still dodging his way through them. Shayera was flying along above him. She flashed him an annoyed look as if he was an absolute nutter. She momentarily swerved off to one side to dodge an oncoming bus, but when she came back her mace was indeed loosed Flash's way. He just about managed to catch it without tripping himself up and going under a screaming taxi.

"I expect that back fast, Flash!" Shayera called back at him, her voice firm. That mace was her weapon. It was almost always at her side, in battle anyway. Seeing her now flying along without it certainly did seem odd. It clearly must have felt odd too, because Shayera dropped slightly further back from the stream of aerial gunfire coming from that raging truck.

But Flash's plan was to take that gun fire right out of the equation. The traffic may be preventing him from catching that truck, but it wasn't a problem they could reasonably remove. Those goons with the guns were different. Them they could get rid off, and then Shayera's path would be clear.

And that was what the mace was for. Shayera was it's master, but Flash could do something she couldn't. He could throw. He could move with such speed that he could hurl the mace with enough force to give the goons one hell of a headache, even more than Shayera herself could manage. He could hit the truck with enough force to send those guys flying off, without having to get close enough to risk getting hit himself. He could give Shayera a way in.

But he had to get the angle right. He had to get the shot lined up, and he couldn't do that while still on the run. Thankfully, he didn't have to.

Another car horn screamed as it had to desperately avoid the angry monster that was the getaway truck. The car swung, its tyres squealing and leaving black marks on the asphalt. This one pretty much came to a stop due to its evasive manoeuvre. That meant it was easy for Flash to run onto its roof, hardly having to break his stride. He could even run faster than before without oncoming traffic in his way. Barely had that car halted than he was suddenly halting right atop its bonnet.

And less than a second after that the mace was hurling forwards into the truck.

It struck, and it struck hard. Those goons had been so focused on keeping Shayera back that they hadn't been looking out for Flash. That meant that they weren't able to brace for the impact. Flash hadn't been accurate enough to go for one of the wheels and take the truck completely off the road, but he had been accurate enough.

It hit the rear bumper, and strong enough to dent it, making the truck lurch. Flash saw from his perch as all the armed goons were jolted. They each made a desperate grab for the truck doors that they had been leant out of, something to cling onto. Only one made it. The rest were thrown completely clear, crashing down hard onto the tarmac and other vehicles. All of them lost their weapons from the hit, but the truck kept going regardless. Guiteau and his driver left their fallen comrades behind. More, they made no effort to help the one desperately clinging to the open rear doors, his feet scraping painfully along the ground. He only lasted seconds before he couldn't hold on any more, tumbling away into the road with a howl of pain.

Flash began to run again, still having work to do to catch all the bad guys for good. As he ran he clobbered the fallen goons around him, making sure they were all down for the count. However, he wasn't as quick in going after them as Shayera.

Barley had Flash leapt down from atop the stationary car than she was swooping beyond him. With the gun fire out of the way, she didn't waste any time. Initially she kept low, but only so as to snatch up her mace from where it had dropped to the tarmac before she was quickly heading up into the air. She didn't even wait to take care of the fallen goons, leaving them all to Flash. The truck was her target, good and true. Flash only just had the last goon unconscious by the time that she was in place to strike. He swerved around a motorbike to keep her in view as she prepared to pounce.

Her angle of attack was steep, coming down from the skies. Clearly the truck's engine was her target, her descent leading her straight down to the front of the truck, mace behind her head ready to strike the metal with all of her might and force the truck to stop its rampage. Flash had no doubts at all that it was going to work, that they had stopped yet another bad guy's machinations.

At least, that was until he watched what actually happened.

To his horror, Flash saw the shape quickly blast out of the truck's cab, encasing the bonnet just in time. The blob solidified, and solidified hard. Shayera slammed her mace against it before she could even react to it being there. There were a lot of things the mace would smash its way through, but not this thing.

It was Guiteau himself. He had hurled himself forward, using his shape changing abilities to safeguard his getaway vehicle, hardening his rubbery skin so that he could take the blow with ease. Worse, he rather absorbed Shayera's mace, pulling it inside himself as if he were made of quicksand. Flash watched Shayera desperately try to pull it clear but her efforts were to no avail. In fact, they left her guard down instead. She was after the mace so much that it left the doors open for Guiteau to change his shape again, forming a mighty fist to pummel right into Shayera's head.

The Thanagarian fell, stunned. Flash was about to call out her name as he ran past her fallen form, but thankfully he saw her instantly scrambling back up to resume the chase herself. The problem was their best chance of getting that truck off the road had just been taken from them.

And that was when things got dark. All of a sudden the lights faded. It took Flash a moment to realise why, thinking even less when he was pelting along the insanely insane roads than he would normally. They must have gone down into the tunnels beneath the main streets without him noticing. Hell, they must have entered the city limits without him noticing. But that wasn't all. Things had gotten even darker than that. Bar the headlights of that still rampaging truck and the few cars which weren't getting the hell out of there, the entire place had gone pitch black.

The whine of a very different engine was what made Flash realise something else. He remembered what city this was. They had entered into Gotham...

It all happened before he even realised it. The whine of those engines grew ever louder, but in the darkness he never saw it coming until it was right on top of them. Evidently, the same could be said of Guiteau and his driver. The escapee had just scrambled back into the cab, surely having loosened up his skin again, sure that the danger had passed. Even the truck's blaring headlights had not shown them the Batmobile coming, and coming right at them.

And it just kept coming.

Flash had to desperately skid to a stop to dodge the mayhem. He watched in amazement as the Batmobile emerged, soaring under the villain's truck, ramping it up into the air with a vast scoop on its front. The truck leapt like such a truck should never do. For a long second it hung into the air as the Batmobile skidded to a halt just beyond it, before crashing back down to Earth with an almighty thump. Doors were thrown clean off the hinges, huge chunks of body work denting, the suspension shattering. Most damaging of all, both axles clearly snapped in twain. The engine of the truck was still purring, but the pieces were going nowhere. All the actions were doing was to make the thing spark.

It didn't take Guiteau long to realise that his escape vehicle was knackered. Flash was just about to get going again when the man tumbled out of the opening in the side of the cab where his door had been seconds earlier. The murdering fugitive was visibly shaken and battered, making it more obvious than ever that he hadn't put up his defences in time. Flash guessed that the pain he would be in from the crash would also make him slow to get them up now. However, he didn't have the chance to test that theory.

The air whistled just for a moment before the soft thud. Guiteau let out a surprised noise through his pained moans. It was all that he had time to do before he became lit up like a Christmas tree. Light began pulsing through his body which was suddenly convulsing, his groans of pain now much more constant and intense. It only lasted a second but it was enough. The man's nervous system had just been shocked, sonically. Flash knew why before the guy hit the deck, unconscious.

Once again he was halting himself, but this time it was in awe. Before he knew it Shayera was landing down at his side having caught up following the blow she took.

"Batman?" Shayera almost silently voiced to him, at which Flash could merely shrug.

Both of them looked at each other in total surprise before looking down at the stationary Batmobile. They could see the ramp-like frontage, could see the places where the panelling of the legendary car had been shifted mid-drive to take up that shape, almost like the car was a Transformer. They could also see the damage the car had taken, the weight of the truck having seemingly crushed a fair amount of the elongated front end. The car looked like it wouldn't be going anywhere soon, but the cockpit looked fine, untouched by the truck lurching over it. Both Flash and Shayera slowly walked towards it, expecting their long absent ally to leap out of it as only he could. It had been months since they had even heard anything from him. Neither knew what to say at the thought that one of their original merry band ought to be right there, back with them. They were just waiting for the cockpit to pop open and the black clad figure to emerge. The unconscious Guiteau was just left waiting on the deck as they did so, no thought at all going to the driver still in the battered truck's cab.

"You're in my city."

Both Flash and Shayera jumped in surprise at the exact same moment. The voice came from behind them. Flash spun with intense speed. Sure enough, Batman was there. The man really was a ninja. A gadget-ridden ninja. A gadget-ridden, genius, tough guy ninja. The guy must have somehow been driving the car by remote and hiding up in the ceiling of the tunnel, ready to pounce on Guiteau once his defences were down. Or he had a very subtle ejector seat. Or he had made himself momentarily invisible. Anything was believable with Batman.

He was still dressed the same as ever, he still looked as cheery as ever, but despite it all Flash was still suddenly overjoyed to see him there. Batman could very definitely scare the living daylights out of him with just a glare. He was hardly ever warm, friendly, comforting or even nice. But he was one of them, and after all that the Justice League had been through together, it didn't matter how different they were. Every last one of them, especially the Founder's, were Wally West's closest friends. Batman included. That was why he couldn't stop himself from giving Batman a brotherly hug the second he overcame his shock at the man not being in the car.

"Let. Go."

The growl was issuing from Batman within milliseconds. He wasn't the hugging type, and with the steel in his voice, Flash quickly obeyed. It was when he did so that he noticed that Shayera had actually been giving old Bats a hug too. It seemed Mr. Dark and Scary had been more missed by the Leaguers than Flash had ever realised.

"Bats! Long time no see, ol' buddy, ol' pal!" Flash blurted out in excitement. He had selfish reasons to be excited too, of course. The rest of the Justice League had had to get a whole lot more serious without Batman around. Bats had always been willing to do the less exciting jobs, to see to it that reports were filed properly, that maintenance on the Watchtower was impeccably maintained, that everyone knew what they were doing without question. Without him around, the rest of the Founders had had to step in and take on even more responsibility for those more menial jobs. More, they had also had to try and think more as the common man and how a team of superheroes could actually be viewed as a dangerous thing. Once again, that had always been one of Batman's specialities, keeping the Justice League in check with who they were protecting, in no small part because of how he had no powers himself. Flash had always been the League's heart, so that part had rather befallen him. He was more than happy to help people, but that sort of task was far too dark and morbid for his liking. He wanted Batman back to take it off of his hands. That meant that he was acting even more excited than simply from reuniting with a good friend. He was positively giddy.

Batman, however, had clearly already had enough of him, especially when he viewed that there was still work to be done. That was why he addressed Shayera next, actually handing her back her mace that he must have somehow retrieved when their backs were turned.

"The GCPD will be here to pick up these crooks at any second," he growled in his typically deep, emotionless voice. "They've been alert and ready to lock them back away since before the breakout began."

"You knew Guiteau was coming? How?" Shayera voiced in shock. She too was clearly glad to see Batman again, despite some past differences between those two that Flash was yet to understand. She was just better at sticking to task than he was.

"The breakout was all a part of a scheme by Cobblepot," Batman answered her. "The plan was to get Guiteau out of jail without anyone knowing. Two-Face had a plan to rob Gotham's Second National Bank that required someone with Guiteau's particular skills, so he hired the Penguin to use his underworld connections to get Guiteau out. Dent told me everything when I turned him over to police custody, but we were too late to stop the breakout from happening. Luckily Guiteau got cocky and made a mess instead of trying to disappear. It made catching him so much easier."

"Easy?" Flash blurted out again. "We've been chasing this guy for miles! You had to wreck your car to actually stop him!"

Once again, Batman ignored Flash, continuing on as if the Scarlet Speedster had not said a word. "I knew that he would still come here. It fits his profile. He's arrogant and stupid. He would think that because Penguin wanted him out he could blackmail Cobblepot into getting him safely from any police, otherwise he would expose Penguin's role in his escape. He wouldn't realise that such a move would be predictable. He wouldn't realise that stopping the two of you would not be enough. It was simply a matter of getting him in the right place, removing his defences and taking him down."

Batman broke off then as sirens suddenly began blaring behind him. Seconds later a horde of police cars had pulled up, officers swarming out. In no time the array of unconscious goons were being rounded up. Guiteau was picked up by a guy Flash was sure he had seen on the news before; the legendary Commissioner James Gordon himself. Batman looked over his shoulder at the police, offering the Commissioner a nod. Flash was absolutely gob-smacked to see the Commissioner smile at Batman in return.

"I may have been gone for eight months, but the rules haven't changed," Batman suddenly spoke again, turning back to Flash and Shayera as if what was happening behind them wasn't happening. "Get out of my city. Go back to the Watchtower. I'll be there soon to file my report."

"Wait... You're coming back?" Flash couldn't help himself. Once again, the words were tumbling out of him before he had even thought about them. Beside him he could see Shayera tense up too, almost as if she was thinking the exact same thing. However, there was also a very confusing, very knowing look to her that if Flash wasn't so caught up in the moment he may well have had to call her on. "As in back back?"

"Eight months is long enough," Batman simply answered, turning his back on them and beginning to move over to the Commissioner and the freshly arrested Guiteau. However, he did stop to say one more thing before he was gone. "Besides, there's something I need to do up on the Watchtower. And I didn't have to wreck the Batmobile. It was time for a new one anyway."

Flash was completely lost for words. Not only was Batman suddenly back, but he could have sworn he had just heard him crack wise. He couldn't believe it. This morning he had woken up just like every other day over the last eight months. Now things were suddenly going back to how they had been before that. No, that wasn't quite right. Batman never joked then, no matter how subtle. Not around Flash, anyway.

He didn't realise just how frozen he had been by that until he felt Shayera put an arm on his shoulder. He quickly looked back at her, noticing her eyes weren't leaving Batman's retreating back. There was definitely a look in her eyes as if she knew or understood something that Flash didn't, as if she had an additional, completely different reason to be glad that the original seven would be together again soon. Flash, though, wasn't about to get the chance to ask her what it was. Shayera had her comm active and was quickly talking into it before he could say anything at all, though her words only provided yet more intrigue.

"Shayera to J'onn. The situation's handled. Beam us back up. And J'onn, a word of warning. There'll be a very familiar third coming up any minute after us. You might want to get the right people prepared."

A/N:

As usual, gratitude has been dispatched for all fandom to date. More is in stock for all new reviews/follows/favourites. Its all appreciated!

Catch you all again soon!